Grain-car door.



w. P. RUBLE & w. B. STEVENS.

GRAIN CARDOOR. 7 APPLICATION FILED FEB- 27,1917.

1,275,477. Patented Aug. 13, 1918.,

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GRAIN CAR DOOR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB-27,1917.

1,275,477. Patented Aug. 13, 1918-.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM P. RUBLE AND WILLIAM B. STEVENS, F ESMOND, NORTH DAKOTA.

GRAIN-CAR DOOR. I

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 27, 1917. Serial No. 151,248;

' of North Dakota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inGrain-Car Doors, of which the following is a specificat1on.'

This invention relates to doors of the kind employed on grain cars andwhich are so constructed and mounted that they may be raised and loweredas required and .may while being lowered be moved in guides beneath thecar floor in such manner as to hold the top or upper edge of the door atany desired elevation while the lower portion of the door is movedentirely out of sight and out of the way.

The objectof our invention is to provide novel and efiicient means forconnecting the door sections with each other and for raising andlowering them.

The door which we employ-is constructed of a series of sections havingtheir upper and lower edges hinged together and these sections areadapted to be moved in guides arranged vertically in the doorway andwhich are extended beneaththe-floor of the car. The door sections areformed with teeth on their opposite edges with which engage worms thatare mounted to turn about vertical axes and which are operated by wormscarried by a horizontal shaft extending from one side of the doorway tothe other and provided with a crank, hand wheel, or other suitable meansfor turning it. The organization is such that compara tively littlefriction is produced while the door is being raised and lowered. The vertical worms operate in oppositionto each other and raise the doorwithout putting any strain or pressure on the guides and therefore thedoor may be raised and lowcred with a minimum expenditure of power andwith great facility. Worms are of course more powerful than ordinarysprocket gearing and by having the worms engage teeth on the oppositeends of the door sections pressure or friction which would other? wisebe produced is eliminated.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 shows in elevation a portion of a grain car to which ourimproved door is applied. Some parts are shown in section, some indotted lines and other parts are broken away in order to more clearlyillustrate the invention Fig. 2 shows a horizontal section on the line22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a vertical section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1. a

Fig. l is a detail view on an enlarged scale and on the sectionindicated by the line 4-4 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a view on an enlarged scale showing two sections ofthe doorand illustrating how the sections are hinged together and Patented Aug.13, 1918. y

how they are formed with teeth at their edges.

' Fig. 6 is a perspective view on an enlarged scale of portions of twoof the door sections and indicates how these sections are groovedvertically.

The car body as a Whole is indicated by A, the car floor being shown ata. The doorway is provided on opposite sides with runways or guides Bfor the car'door D and'these guides are continued or extended beneaththe floor a, as shown most clearly in Fig. 3.

The door D is composed of a series of slats or sections d, hinged toeach other at their upper and lower edges. Preferably these sections aremade of sheet metal, the lower portion of each section being formed witha socket d, which receives the upper portion of an adjacent sectionwhich is enlarged by being bent or doubled upon itself asindicated at (ZThe construction as will be observed is such that the sections may bereadily connected and disconnected when the two sections may beseparated. When the sections are passlng through the curved portion 6 ofthe guides B the walls of the guide hold the sections in place so thatthey cannot separate. The manner in which this is done is indicated inFig. 3. The hinged joints d, 03 do not extend from one end of thesections to the otherand'do not enter the vertical portions of theguides B. By reference to Fig. 1 it will be seen that the hinged parts dand ol are much shorter than the section and the opposite ends of thesections extend into the guides B in the manner more clearly indicatedin Fig. 2. The guides are provided with vertical flanges b which enterthe vertical grooyes gage the teeth (i on the opposite ends or verticaledges of the door sections. The shafts e carry worm wheels F with whichengage worms G on a horizontal shaft H supported in brackets h and whichextends from one side of the doorway to the other. Said shaft may beprovided with a crank I, a hand wheel J, or any other suitable operatingm echanism. By merely turning the shaft H the door may be raised andlowered with great facility, the thrust of the-worms E being endwise ineach section and both the worms operating'to raise the door in avertical direction without exerting pressure between the door sectionsand the guides.

We claim as our invention:

1. A car door provided on each opposite side edge with a verticallyarranged series of teeth, in combination with worms mounted to turnabout vertical axes and which enga e the two series of teeth for raisingand owering the door.

2. A car door provided. on each opposite raising and lowering the door,and means for simultaneously operating said worms.

3. A car door provided on each opposite side edge with a vertical seriesof teeth, worms mounted to move about vertical axes and engaging saidteeth for raising and lowering the door, a horizontally arrangedoperating shaft and gearing between said shaft and said Worms wherebythey are simultaneously operated.

4. A car door made in sections hinged together at their upper and loweredges and having vertically arranged teeth at their opposite ends,guides in the sides of the doorway and beneath the car floor in whichthe sections move, worms mounted to turn about vertical axes andengaging the toothed ends of the door sections, a horizontally arrangedoperating shaft, and worm gearing between this shaft and the verticallyarranged worms which raise and lower the car door.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names.

WILLIAM P. RUBLE. WILLIAM B. STEVENS.

Witnesses: I CAnLos LAASTEAGUA ARTHUR BOHOLDT.

